When I saw the first edition of EarthLines I had an immediate rush of excitement … the merging of nature and culture; the recognition that we are part of what we see, not separate. I loved the absence of adverts for crystal suppositories and quick-fix shamanic apps for your iPhone. But at the same time I loved the acceptance that there are things we cannot measure that are as important as the bald statistics on which I might argue a case about hedgehog survival. And I loved its local-ness. It is produced by a ludicrously small team (Sharon Blackie and David Knowles) up on the Isle of Lewis and the material I have read has been so much more familiar than the exotic output of the nearest competitor, Orion. Continue reading
Jay Griffiths
Hugh Warwick Revealed
Yes – you read that right, I am about to reveal myself ….
A while ago my publishers sent me an enormously long list of impossible questions about myself that I was assured would assist you, the buying public, in deciding to part with hard-earned cash … I was not sure, but went for it – and then, recently, I found that these questions have been incorporated into a website … so here is the most egotistical of posts ….
But then I read through it, and was surprised by what I had written … some of the questions had required far too much thought … others generated answers with which I am quite pleased. So – just in case any of you are wondering what to do with the next 5 minutes – why not have a bash at re-writing them for me! Find ways that will make me more appealing … this could be like a Wiki exercise in crowd-sourced information … and if we make it good enough, well, there will be no stopping me … the world will be mine, all mine …. (exit with megalomaniac laughter still ringing)
Self-promotion
To some this may seem unsavoury, but to me, it is a necessary component of life … self-promotion. I think that I was raised to shun such extreme behaviour, but somewhere along the line I shed the middle-class reserve (probably around the time I learnt to think for myself, and realised that ‘if you don’t ask, you don’t get’).
So, here are just a few of the reviews that A Prickly Affair and The Hedgehog’s Dilemma (one and the same) received … and if you are so moved, please go to Amazon and write more.
Jeanette Winterson
“the most glorious mad book… a charming book and will take your mind off everything.”
New Scientist
“…an autobiographical yarn … that is at once humorous, touching and obsessive… An oddly satisfying read.”
The Guardian
“…unfailingly entertaining… Ultimately it’s a book about our relationship with hedgehogs as much as it is about hedgehogs themselves.” “Save a hedgehog and you might just save the world.”
Jay Griffiths
“This is an utterly charming book, it is funny and gently serious.”
Libby Purves (Midweek)
“The perfect antidote to the economic crisis.”
The Spectator
“This is a useful and entertaining book, and unsentimental.”
The Daily Telegraph
“Hugh Warwick, an otherwise normal father-of-two…”
Oxford Times
“You end up learning an enormous amount about hedgehogs without really noticing, and laugh quite a lot, too.”
Hay Book Festival programme
“A truly eccentric global story of hog lore.”
LA Times
“There’s more than a whiff of the legendary naturalist Gerald Durrell here — his humor, his affection and his never-ending curiosity.”